Numerous surgical procedures result in the perforation or removal of biological tissue, such as the water-tight fibrous membrane surrounding the brain known as the dura mater. In some instances, such as minimally invasive neurosurgical procedures, relatively few small holes are created in the dura mater, while in others, such as the surgical resection of advanced tumors, large sections of the dura mater may be removed. In all of these cases, the tissue barrier surrounding the brain must be repaired in order to prevent damage to cortical tissues and leakage of cerebrospinal fluid. To facilitate this repair, neurosurgeons utilize sheets of polymeric materials or processed tissue that act like native dura, known as dural substitutes.
At least some known dural substitutes utilized in neurosurgical clinics are composed of an acellular collagen matrix obtained from isolated bovine or porcine tissues. While generally accepted in the field, such xenogenic dural substitutes may increase the incidence of adhesions and contractures, transmit various zoonotic diseases to patients, and generally reduce patient outcome following surgery. Furthermore, processed collagenous grafts are exceedingly expensive, costing patients and insurance companies thousands of dollars per procedure.
In addition while cell microarrays may be useful in biomedical research and tissue engineering, at least some known techniques for producing such cell microarrays may be costly and time consuming, and may require the use of specialized, sophisticated instrumentation.